Fall of Tribute
The Battle of Tribute was a long campaign that took place on and above the planet Tribute in the Epsilon Eridani system in July of 2552 until November 4th 2552 which ended due to the start of the Covenant Civil War. The Invasion As the Covenant discovered and invaded Reach, they also attacked the other colonies in the system, including Tribute. The Covenant fleet smashed aside the UNSC defense fleet and began to lay siege to the planet by setting up a blockade. Initial losses were light as the Covenant had no orders to invade or glass the planet. As such mere skirmishes between UNSC patrols and Covenant recon parties occurred sporadically across the land scape. UNSC GROUNDCOM forces had mobilized immediately and set up civilian evacuation routes as soon as they could get their transports through the blockade. Inn addition to pre-planning defensive lines and points of counter attacks. In an effort to take some of the pressure off the blockade, ONI sent Spartan II team Black to the planet of Verge. A lost human colony that the covenant were now using as a resource center for their navy. August 29th 2552 Unfortunately with the arrival of the main Covenant Fleet at Reach, UNSC FLEETCOM ordered all Epsilon Eridani ships to rally at Reach in an effort to buy time for the evacuation. With the final blow coming to the system. The Covenant above Tribute began their attack. Swarms of drop ships and insertion pods rained across the population centers. Covenant landing zones were established allowing more reinforcements to be deployed. Although the commanders had pre-planned attacks to destroy these beach heads before they became too powerful, with the evacuation order, most commanders were sent to take a defensive posture in order to protect the civilians and allow them to escape. Few commanders followed their battle plan and countered the Covenant drop zones. Though they managed to slow the covenant forces down, and were even able to neutralize some of their heavier equipment. With a fleet as large as the one there was sitting above their heads, the attacks were an act of defiance rather than victory. Within a day, the Covenant invasion force had secured and occupied the capital of Casbah. Smashing amid the UNSC defenders in drop pods, the Elites tore apart heavy weapon teams and anti-vehicle emplacements quickly allowing them to deploy reinforcements in a more accurate position, as well as air cover to support the Covenant ground troops. UNSC units found themselves cut off and surrounded by the aliens. Those that were able to retreat did so, but most were cornered and killed. August 30th 2552 A day after the initial attacks occurred, UNSC forces attempted to regroup. In the early hours the two other primary population centers were glassed, leaving only Casbah intact and having the only space port still in one piece. By mid afternoon, UNSC GROUNDCOM under the command of Generals Morshower and Greenwood who adopted the call sign 'Overlord', began deploying their troops back into the city from the outskirts where they had been forced by the brutal Covenant attacks. After a day and a half of fierce fighting occurring between the UNSC defenders and the Covenant, the UNSC had secured and held onto the Space docks south of the city. Pockets of resistance still held onto the west space port and the east. GroundCOM was in the process of pushing their forces towards both sides of the city to reconnect with any surviving UNSC troops or any stranded civilians. GroundCOM initiated two operations to push the last of the Covenant out of the city. September 2nd 2552 OPERATION: GOAL POST The first step in retaking the capital of Casbah, OPERATION GOAL POST was a multi-branch aerial assault into the coastal lines of the city. Several hundred marines supported by UNSC Army tanks flew across the sound in the downtown area of the city and deployed along the shore two kilometers from one of the primary space ports that was being overran. The large assault force was deployed via Pelican dropships, and falcon insertion craft. Many of the Pelicans carried the scorpion main battle tanks into combat with the first wave of marines. With the tank crews mounted aboard their vehicles, as soon as the scorpions hit the sand, they were rolling towards the dug in Covenant positions and wraith heavy armor. Though the designated drop location and nearby areas had been targeted by a series of bombing mission from Longsword interceptors and short sword bombers, the attack force still met heavy resistance. Shade heavy turrets and anit air wraiths had been mobilized quickly in response to the UNSC mobilization. Despite continued bombing runs by the short swords, and close air support from AV-22 Sparrowhawks, several dropships were destroyed prior to landing losing their scorpion and marine cargo. Those that made it, were immediately under heavy fire from Covenant infantry and heavy plasma mortars from Wraith tanks. The marines met a break through early on with the deployment of the Spartans from Deadeye team. The Spartans withered through the heavy fire enough to be able to knock out the thickets of resistance before pushing up into the city and off the beach. Supported by a tank platoon and squads of marines, the Spartans advanced along the right flank of the battle. Together with the marine forces, they were able to leap frog down the roads towards their objective. As the attack force advanced, they lost several more scorpions and infantry squads due to hidden Wraiths or incoming Covenant air craft and many more infantrymen to snipers and machine gun emplacements. But with the combined fire provided by the Spartans and the marines, each strongpoint of resistance was destroyed and within forty five minutes the UNSC attack force had reached the rear guard of the Covenant forces besieging one of the space ports. The breakthrough of this assault, and reconnecting with the surviving space port, allowed another landing force to be deployed to one of the other evacuation centers. Further more, the rapid and brutal assault by the marines of the 501st, caused many of the Covenant troops repelling the units approaching from the outer areas of the city, to fall back and protect their core regions. Thus allowing the UNSC troops to meet up quicker and launch more coordinated counter thrusts. With the beach head and space port secured, the ground forces began pushing ever further into the capital, using the space port as an Forward Assault Base (FAB) they managed to reclaim more and more areas of the city, and find dozens of more refugees hiding. It was during this continued momentum that the Spartans of Team Deadeye split their forces for the first time. Half of the team went with one assault group to help clear out Covenant landing zones and check points in order to open up the lines with other UNSC defenders. The other group pushed onwards to one of the evacuation bunkers that is slowly being over ran. By the end of the day, the primary space port and the southern portion of the city was under UNSC control. Though the Covenant maintained a tight rule over the eastern and western ends of the city, holding the southern island allowed countless civilians to be evacuated. With the new mission to protect the space port, the marines and army units deployed several anti aircraft weapons around the port's walls while marine heavy weapon squads set up perimeters. With this operation's success, it opened the way for phase two of the counter invasion of Casbah, OPERATION: Scorched Earth. September 3rd 2552 OPERATION: SCORCHED EARTH With Much of Casbah back in UNSC hands, UNICOM initiated their second phase of the counter attack, code named Operation Scorched Earth. The Operation would be a two step assault. The first is to destroy a UNSC Communications relay that the Covenant gained control of. During the collapse of the UNSC's defense of Casbah, one of their strong points was overran and the Communications relay was left behind intact. GroundCOM anticipated the Covenant has hacked into the system and are assuming they could listen in on all UNSC radio traffic. Prior to launching the assault, Team Metal and a strike force from the 2nd Marine Mechanized armor unit and 75th Army regiment were ordered to destroy the relay. The second phase involved getting Spartan Team Deadeye aboard one of the Covenant Cruisers and gain control of their weapon's system to turn their own guns on the Covenant Fleet. As the warthog convoy came within 500 meters of the objective they were ambushed by a pair of Hunters. The hunters destroyed two of the warthogs and threw the vehicle team metal was riding in on it's side, the surviving soldiers with the help of the Marine Scorpion returned fire. The squad of soldiers and team Metal found themselves in a major firefight as two dozen Covenant ground forces attacked to convoy with support from a pair of Spectres. After the group finished off the ambush, they came into contact with another infantry supported tank column from the 2nd Marines. Together the platoon strength force moved onwards to the objective. They only made it a few blocks before banshee bombing runs stopped the force signaling another ambush set up by the Covenant. With the lead scorpion destroyed by the fuel rod cannon fire, the column was trapped as a phantom dropship appeared in the street. Flying between the tall buildings and suppressing the infantry as it deployed its contingent of Covenant fighters. At the same moment four Spectres assault vehicles and Revenants blocked the UNSC assault forces' path. With the Scorpions destroyed and the infantry getting slaughters, Team Meatal was forced to push through several buildings and eliminate Covenant support squads before they ended up across the street from the target building. When they exited across the street from the building, they met up with an ODST squad call sign Anvil. The four ONI members and three ODSTs pushed towards the building where they discovered it was already in Covenant hands. Though the Covenant had deployed two Plasma cannons in watch towers and had two dozen troops guarding the entrance the strike team had no other options available, and launched an assault on the Covenant forces. After clearing the main entrance, squad Anvil opted to stay and secure the recon team's rear. Metal moved to the main control center of the building engaging another two dozen ground forces and advanced towards the roof. As they reached the ladder they came under fire from below. Realizing Anvil team was gone and the recon team was surrounded, Sergeant Stonefield led them to the roof with the hope of possible extraction. Clearing out the ten grunts and the Elite leading them, the squad set their explosives and blew the communications tower. With the Covenant no longer able to listen in on UNSC COMMS traffic, the ground forces could move throughout the city extracting civilians and launching counter attacks and defenses against the advancing aliens. As they waited for their extraction vehicle, the squad came under fire from two building across the street. Jackal snipers and grunts with Fuel rod cannons and plasma guns opened fire on the trapped soldiers. ONI was able to deploy a flight of longswords to attempt to flush out the Covenant ground forces and sent one of the bombers to aide Metal. With the snipers clear, the four members jumped on the Falcon transport and were deployed to the edge of the city harbor to meet up with a Spartan fire team. As they escaped the downtown area, they fought off several banshees that attempted to shoot them down. With the Communications link secured, the UNSCDF could execute the second phase of Operation Scorched Earth, getting team Deadeye aboard the Covenant cruiser. However the Covenant had set up several Mantis AA Guns around the area. Team Metal supported by an ODST fire team and a company strength force of tanks and Soldiers would destroy the gun and open a path for the Spartans. The AA gun chosen to be taken out was deployed in an intersection two kilometers away from the cruiser. Utilizing Falcons which were small and fast enough to get the special forces teams deployed on the rooftops while evading AA fire and escorted by a pair of AV-22 Sparrowhawks to clear out the landing zones. Team Metal deployed on the rooftop of a building to the south of the intersection and set up a sniper position while two ODST teams, call signs Onyx and Granite deployed to the building on the north side of the intersection and would launch an attack from the rooftop. While Team Metal provided sniper fire, the ODSTs and a UNSC Army tank platoon moved into the intersection. After destroying several Covenant Wraiths with the Scorpions and shoulder mounted anti vehicle weapons, the assault force cleared almost twos scores of hostile ground forces before destroying the AA gun. With the AA gun destroyed and the air corridor open for the Spartans. Team Deadeye began their deployment to the cruiser via pelican. As they got closer to the cruiser, Seraph fighters launched from the Covenant ship and were set on intercepting the dropship. As they got closer, the two Longsword fighters escorting the Pelican shot down any of the Covenant interceptors clearing a path for the Spartans. However as more Covenant air craft swarmed in, the Longswords were destroyed and a Seraph managed to shoot down the Pelican carrying team Deadeye. Crashing a Kilometer and a half from the AA gun site. All of the Spartans survived the crash though Spartan Caitlyn O-068, one of the Spartan III commandos sustained crippling injuries with a broken leg, arm and collar bone. UNSC GroundCOM immediately ordered the tank column to move to the crash site to assist the Spartans and escort them via ground routes to the cruiser in order to complete their mission. Team Metal was prepared to advance with the tanks in support but received direct orders from ONI to return to the Casbah spaceport to be extracted on one of the last flights off Tribute for a special assignment. As the tanks started to move on the Spartan Crash site, UNICOM brought in flights of Sparrowhawks and Hornets to provide close air support to the Spartans and the tank column who quickly began to meet heavy covenant resistance. The Covenant troops had begun their final push into the city to eliminate the humans left. With so many covenant troops moving, the Spartans of Team Deadeye were advised to hold their position until the tank column arrived. As the armored column just broke through nearly seventy Covenant forces trying to counter attack the UNSC troops, the tanks were ambushed by a Scarab heavy assault vehicle less than a kilometer away from the Spartans. As the Scarab broke through a sky scraper causing the twenty story building to collapse onto the tank column and scattering the infantry. Scores of Covenant forces moved into the confused UNSC troops while Wraiths bombarded the area with plasma mortars, the Scorpions were swiftly destroyed and the infantry scattered. In the end only a handful of Soldiers were able to get free and push on to the Spartan Crash site. Upon learning of the loss of the tank column, and the wide spread counter assault the Covenant was launching all across the city, UNICOM and GroundCOM realized they had lost the chance to get the Spartans close to the Cruiser. With the amount of Covenant ground troops advancing on the city, it would take far to long for the Spartans to complete their mission. Deadeye received new orders to move away from the crash site and rally with a platoon of Marines and gather as many stragglers as they could in order to hit the Covenant with flank attacks in an effort to buy time for the Space Port defenders to evacuate the planet. The Battle of Casbah As team Deadeye continued to move around the remains of Casbah they picked up scattered UNSC troops that were cut off from their parent units. With the Covenant launching their main assault against the Space Port, UNICOM ordered the retreat of all major UNSC units to defend and repel the aliens. With their numbers near seventy men and women of the UNSCDF, the Spartans led the strike force behind enemy lines attacking Covenant Artillery and fire support positions as well as staging points for their attacks. Each attack was a bloody fight with less and less troops walking away and even losing Spartan Caitlyn O-068 in one of the first attacks. Her crippling injuries hindering her ability to maneuver in combat. While team Deadeye was launching hit and run attacks in the Covenant's rear lines, other UNSCDF units and Spartan III fire teams were deployed to the major evacuation points. Team Deadeye was primarily directed to strike at the Covenant forces aimed at assaulting these positions in order to assist with the defense of the city. After leading nearly a half dozen counter attacks against the aliens, the strike force Team Deadeye was supported by number only fourteen soldiers, both Marines and Army troops. Deadeye continued to push harder and harder, always staying on the attack and bringing the covenant war machine to a complete stop in some areas, and severely weakening it in others. These weakened battle groups either called their attacks off completely or were easily destroyed by the UNSC defenders they later encounters. Eventually the Spartans were cornered by a much larger force, and led by an elite group of Sangheili warriors who coordinated the use of heavy weapons and hunters, team Deadeye became pinned down and picked off one by one from snipers, grenades, heavy weapons and accurate cross fire set up from plasma weapons. As the massive assault force closed in on them, Joseph S-122 and Tim O-009, the last two members of the team, had collected their remaining explosive charges in a satchel and detonated them just as the Covenant forces closed in to slay the them. The blast took nearly fifty Covenant soldiers with them and caused the collapse of two apartment structures. All across Casbah, scenes of similar sacrifices were taking place. At a secondary evacuation point that was at risk of being overran, Spartan teams Kopis and Jian along with a dozen marines were all that was left of the sites defenders. Team Kopis stayed behind to occupy the Covenant while the Marines guided the last few civilians to the final transport and Team Jian provided moving protection. Team Jian upon getting the civilians on board were ordered by ONI to leave as well. Spartan Irving-G226, Team Kopis' leader sent a final message informing Team Jian they had them covered. ONI lost all contact with Kopis not long after. In other areas, squads of marines lost their lives as they refused to retreat from their fortified positions in the face of the Covenant forces. Buying time for the civilians and other warriors to pull back and escape. Others launching suicide flank attacks in an effort to distract the aliens for a few minutes to allow the defenders to redeploy to better positions. The fiercest fighting was around the major evacuation points. Marines and Spartans alike fought from the reinforced walls and the sandbag emplacements keeping back the Covenant ground forces. Surviving Scorpion battle tanks and Cobra tank destroyers knocked out any incoming Covenant armor, while warthogs and heavy weapon squads shot down incoming banshee attack craft. Despite their best efforts some of the Covenant craft made it through and would shoot down the escaping civilian transports killing hundreds in a single event. With the final evacuation points being overwhelmed, the last grips the UNSC had on Casbah began to loose hold. The UNICOM command center was lost and the last space port defenses collapsed. Any surviving UNSC troops and civilians alike fled the city and ran into the countryside, surviving by making mobile camps in the forests or ruins of destroyed towns. With the UNSC's last bastion fallen, there was very little resistance left the UNSC could give. In the coming months, the priority was to stay alive and ride out the invasion. Occasionally UNSC troops would attack a passing Covenant patrol but most of these were for weapons or because the aliens were getting too close to their refugee encampment. The refugees were forced to continually move all the time for if they stayed too long and were discovered by the Covenant, it would not be long before a Covenant ship arrived and glassed the area. A lesson that was learned through the lives of several hundred civilians and a dozen glassed camps. The refugees finally earned a break on November 2nd when the Covenant Great Schism began and the Battle for Tribute came to an unexpected end. Tribute's fall was considered one of the defining tragedies of the Human-Covenant War, as it had huge economic ramifications on Earth and the surviving colonies in the post-war period. Tribute was partially glassed in the conclusion of the battle, although it would be restored to a habitable state in the postwar years as the survivors rallied to the planet's eventual reclamation and rebuilding. Many of Tribute's major cities were heavily damaged and few industrial sites were left unscathed. Over half of Tribute's population was killed during the battle, but Earth was unable to provide any immediate assistance with the colonies of the Sol system in ruins after the Covenant's invasion. However, enough infrastructure remained intact on the planet to allow Tribute's survivors to begin rebuilding the planet's ecology and once powerful economy. Though the UEG and UNSC still had to deal with Covenant remnants that remained in the system following the war. UNSC Marine Corps units to track down Jiralhanae holdouts on the planet. At some point between 2555 and 2558, UNSC Central Command Region One entered negotiations with Covenant fleet remnants, with Olympia Vale serving as an advisor.